Star Trek makes its network television debut. Given the cultural impact and enormous franchise spawned by the original Star Trek series, it’s hard to believe that the show lasted just three seasons and was canceled by NBC in 1969 because of low ratings.

1945: Arthur C. Clarke begins privately circulating copies of a paper that proposes using space satellites for global communications. It was a bold suggestion for 1945, as the war was just winding down and most people were undoubtedly more concerned about the necessities of life than they were with beaming radio waves down from space. […]

1964: Mothra vs. Godzilla makes its screen debut in Japan. Or was it Mothra Against Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. The Thing? By whatever name you choose — and it went by all of them at one time or another — for those of us who grew up watching these entertaining romps, this […]

1999: Larry and Andy Wachowski release The Matrix, the first mind-bending installment in what will become an influential sci-fi film trilogy. Cyberpunks quickly forget that technocultural flops like Lawnmower Man and Virtuosity ever existed. The movie took cyberfiction staples like those found in William Gibson‘s Sprawl trilogy — including his classic 1984 novel, Neuromancer, from […]